will certainly find to be true, that the more submissive you are, the less you will be obliged to submit ; and should it be your ambition even to govern, you will accomplish it with the most ease, by acknowledging yourself a subject.

Between a married couple of sense and affection, for it is with such only that any happiness can be found, there can hardly be any dispute but what must turn upon trifles, or the contrast, perhaps, of some little habits, which, though indifferent in themselves, cannot suffer a contradiction without some regret. But as these are common to both sexes, and every person has his foibles in some degree or other, it must be the business of reason to make this matter easy by mutual compliances, or a cartel, as it were, of exchange; where those, however, who happen to yield the most, will, by that conquest over themselves, which of all others is the most beneficial, be sure to be the greatest gainers in the end. As I have formerly been a musician, a reflection has sometimes occurred to me, from that art, which might, I think, be applied, with good effect, to the married state. From the pains and patience, which are required to put an instrument in tune, before it can afford us any music, I have been induced to wonder why the married pair, who are mutually the instruments of that harmony on which each other's comfort depends, should be generally so regardless of the necessary care of tuning, or reducing each other's temper to its proper tone, by softening it when too sharp, and raising it when too low: for I am persuaded that much less pains, than what we employ, without scruple, upon a harpsichord, would keep both the husband and wife in, what we call, concert pitch. But some perhaps may be apt to raise a different reflection

from the same subject; that discords in matrimony, like those in music, are both useful and necessary, to enhance and strengthen the harmony of the close. But the comparison will not hold, for the experiment will always be dangerous in the married state, where they may be compared more justly to those slight indispositions of the body, which, though they do not threaten the ruin of the whole, yet are apt to weaken some part; and whose proper use is to admonish us to guard our health with the greater care. In short, if two enemies should be forced by any accident to be comrades for life, the necessity of the thing would oblige them to become friends. The same reason then, one would think, should more strongly engage a pair of friends, tied together by choice and affection in a partnership inseparable, to extirpate every seed of discord, that might possibly arise betwixt them.

I have thrown together these few observations from my long experience of the married life, not by way of counsel, which you do not want; but in confirmation of those excellent resolutions which your own good sense has suggested to you, and as a testimony of my regard, and of my sincere wishes for your prosperity.

By this time, I suppose, you begin to think of quitting the country, and returning to your winter quarters in town; Cambridge is but a little out of your road, where we should be proud to receive you at our house. We may plead some kind of right to expect this favour from you both, since this University had the honour of Mr. Montagu's education, and claims some share also in yours.

I did not know that your sister was with you, or I should have added our compliments to her, which I

desire you to make; and with our wishes of all happi

ness to Mr. Montagu and yourself, I beg leave to sub

scribe myself, madam,

Your affectionate friend,

Conyers Middleton.

LETTER IV.

Miss Talbot to a new-born infant*.

You are heartily welcome, my dear little cousin, into this unquiet world! Long may you continue in it, in all the happiness it can give; and bestow enough on your friends, to answer fully the impatience with which you have been expected! May you grow up to have every accomplishment that your good friend, the bishop of Derry †, can already imagine in you; and, in the mean time, may you have a nurse with a tunable voice, who will not talk an immoderate deal of nonsense to you!

You are at present, my dear, in a very philosophical.. disposition. The gaieties and follies of life have no attraction for you. Its sorrows you kindly commiserate: but, however, do not suffer them to disturb your slumbers; find charms in nothing but harmony and repose. You have as yet contracted no partialities; you are entirely ignorant of party distinctions; and you look with a perfect indifference on all human splendour. You have an absolute dislike to the vanities of dress: and are likely for many months, to observe the bishop of Bristol's first rule of conversation, Silence; though

*The daughter of Mr. John Talbot, and the grand-daughter of the lord chancellor Talbot.

tempted to transgress it by the novelty and strangeness of all the objects round you.

As you advance farther in life, this philosophical: temper will, by degrees, wear off. The first object of your admiration will probably be the candle; and thence, you will contract a taste, (as we all do,) for the gaudy and the glaring, without making one moral reflection on the danger of such false admiration, as leads people many a time to burn their fingers. You will then begin to show great partiality for some very good aunts, who will contribute all they can towards spoiling you. And you will be very fond of an excellent mamma, who will teach you, by her example, all sorts of good qualities. But let me warn you of one thing, my dear: and that is, not to learn of her to have so immoderate a love of home, as is quite contrary to all the privileges of this polite age; and to give up entirely all those pretty graces of whim, flutter, and afectation, which so many charitable poets have declared to be the prerogative of

our sex.

O! my poor cousin, to what purpose will you boast this prerogative, when your nurse, with a pious care, to sow the seeds of jealousy and emulation as early as possible, tells you that you have a fine little brother come to put your nose out of joint? There will be nothing to be done then, but to be very good; and prove what, be lieve me, admits of very little dispute, (though it has occasioned abundance,) that we girls, however people give themselves airs, are by no means to be despised. Let the men unenvied shine in public: it is we, who must make their homes delightful to them; and if they provoke us, not less uncomfortable.

I do not expect you to answer this letter yet awhile;

but as, I dare say, you have the greatest interest with your papa, I will beg you to prevail upon him that we may know by a line, (before his time is engrossed by another secret committee,) that you and your mamma are well. In the mean time, I will only assure you, that all here rejoice in your existence extremely; and that I am, my very young correspondent,

Most affectionately yours,

Catherine Talbot.

LETTER V.

Dr. Porteus, bishop of London, to Mrs. Carter.-On the promotion of her nephew.

Madam,

January 4, 1798.

Although you and I have long been very good friends, I do not think I ever had the gallantry to present you with a new year's gift. I now wish to mend my manners in this respect; and as we are both of us a little past our prime, it would not suit either of us to wait very long for any thing. I will, therefore, enter upon a new course (as all penitents ought to do) without delay; and I will, in one respect at least, begin the year well, by desiring you to accept, as a new year's gift, the living of Thorley, in Hertfordshire, for your nephew Mr. Pennington.

In offering you this benefice, I have more than one source of gratification. I have the satisfaction, in the first place, of giving competence and comfort to a worthy young man, whose exemplary conduct, and attention to his parochial duties, are highly spoken of by his parishioners. And I have also the great pleasure of testifying my regard for a most excellent lady, whom I have long known and reverenced; whose talents, learn